And yet, if Google didn't make money, we wouldn't have such a great search engine to use. Think about how much Google has helped scientific research, both for academics and ordinary people.

Clicking ads is literally what supports Google.

I think the point is that there are many people who work on the clicking ads part, arguable moreso than the search part.

I understand that the NYT needs a paywall and ad networks to survive, I just hope that most of the staff spends their time on the journalism, not on the ad network.

I think the incorrect assumption raganwald makes is that the greatest minds aren't trying to solve these problems. You're not going to hear about massive successes in these fields nearly as often because the problems are hugely complex and very difficult to solve.

Yeah, I think the invention of synthetic insulin was probably more significant, and difficult, than yet another search engine, or yet another email client or yet another ad platform, even if the latter were improvements.

Also, isn't google pretty much a normal corporation at this point in terms of employee expectations and salary?

Is that really true? I imagine a world in which people never drove to see friends or acquaintances would be a world with fewer fatal car crashes, but I don't think it's a world I would prefer to the one I live in.

Thus making another assumption that social interactions on Facebook, Twitter, etc. are 'trivial'.

When you save those people's lives, health, and sanity, what are they going to do with themselves? "trivial" social interactions. Facebook alone has been brought indescribable joy to thousands of grandmas.

Funny you should mention grandmas. In the words of mine: "I hate that facebook thing. Nobody calls me any more."